An interesting point Hepcat although I would surmise that the craft cutter models are assembled with the aid of pins or magnets. I would also point out that they also are already old hat. Current cutting edge modelling is already done with the aid of 3d printers including complete scale models. As they say,progress waits for no man,but I think there is room for all of us, including the pins,spruce and bamboo. Not sure about the nails though !!!

First up is the colour scheme for the Chris Foss Middle Phase aileron wing slope-soarer kit I'm just starting... BLACK fuselage and vertical tail parts, FLUORESCENT PINK for the upper wings and horizontal tail, and lower wing surfaces will of course be full-on 'invasion stripes' so I can see which way's up!

I started with the fuselage. There is quite some work for preparing all the parts before assembling.The parts fit very well. I like the small small glue bottle with its small opening. It makes it easy to dose the glue.A toothpick is still handy to clean the glue joints from surplus glue.I hope to add the second half of the fuselage to the formers today.

Wings and tail surfaces now done – all the bits continue to fit amazingly well. One minor addition has been a couple of very soft 1/8” balsa gussets at the upper wing roots, which sit on top of the kit gussets fitted at the lower surface of the wing. These aren’t structural but rather to avoid the risk of tissue wrinkles in the corners.

Even with the time taken to sand off the burnt edges of the parts, this has been a very quick build so far.

I wanted to go on with the fuselage, but I have a question about the score line in front of the former F3A.If the score line is along the former 3A (red line in my pict), and the fuselage is cracked there, then the upper corner of the side pieces will be narrower then the lower corner. ( I hope it is somehow understandable what I mean... )But in the next step the fuselage sides should be fitted to the front former F1 and F2 which are narrower in the lower section and wider in the upper section..... thus the opposite of the fuselage sides...

Wings and tail surfaces now done – all the bits continue to fit amazingly well. One minor addition has been a couple of very soft 1/8” balsa gussets at the upper wing roots, which sit on top of the kit gussets fitted at the lower surface of the wing. These aren’t structural but rather to avoid the risk of tissue wrinkles in the corners.

Even with the time taken to sand off the burnt edges of the parts, this has been a very quick build so far.

Mike S

Mike that's the sort of thing I would do - I hate those corner wrinkles

Fuselage and undercart done now. My wire bending skills are somewhat lacking, so I found the latter a bit tricky. Once I had all the bends in the right place though it fitted together fine. I used 5 amp fuse wire and cyano to bind it, which seemed to work fine. It looks like a lot of wood in the fuselage, but it doesn't feel heavy.

It looks like a lot of wood in the fuselage, but it doesn't feel heavy.

Mike, I remember the late Mike Hetherington saying he used to shave wood off longerons and spacers at the back and it made no difference, but I intend to do a Tiger and will definitely trim away some of that wood, starting with the triangles right at the back. The moments look similar to the VMC SE5 and that one needs plasticene (the Camel more so!).

Dan is right, even with rubber power the Tiggy didn't need a lot. The Camel on the other hand...

There is no doubt that there is a lot of wood in these designs, the construction method and the aim of making them handle-able for the average Joe makes it so. So you guys can probably hack out quite a bit especially from the rear.

Having said that the sides are made from light wood, where ordinarily you might have stiff (and heavy) 1/16" longerons. So it's not as heavy as it looks as Mike has observed.

For any one else, (sorry i didn't point this out earlier) I did a bit of a guide to wire bending using the Tiggy undercart as an example. You can find it at:

I tried to pick up a Tiger from the shop today but it had gone. All they had was Spitfires. So the range are certainly selling. On the other hand, they've had a lot of Aerographics for ages, but you have to cut out the bits. How quickly we succumb!

On an unrelated topic, if anyone is interested in a big indoor site near Newark on Trent, with Weds evening meetings, I can supply details.